The most dangerous promise of all
by St.Jack
Summary: Oneshot: Another made a promise with Keitaro long ago with terrible consequences for the rest of the girls. Warning: Lots and lots of character death.


Disclaimer: I do now own anything even remotely related to Love Hina intellectual property, Any and all chapters I may or may not write also do not claim any ownership on my part of any Love Hina Intellectual property.

Erk, taking a break from 'dream' I had a few ideas, this was one of them, more a little bit of fun than anything else, lots and lots of character death…

Let me know how it goes. The review button is just above.

* * *

Shinobu was the first, her trust made is simple. She offered me tea and left to refill the pot. A trace of Hina's favourite laced about the mouth of her cup set my course. We talked of nothing, how school was (getting easier with Keitaro's tutoring), how her parents were (still divorced, each still selfishly wanting her for themselves) and how she enjoyed living at Hinata Sou (very much so, particularly with her favourite, tortured sempai). She drank slowly, obviously savouring the taste, (there was no trace of course), taking the time to relax after her afternoon in the kitchen preparing a meal few would savour. Her throat bobbed as she swallowed, and as we talked the orange afternoon sun cut further and further across the kitchen floor and then the table. Her breathing slowed and her eyes dipped as though she grew drowsy, she apologised, (It was too late for apologies) but I smiled back and it was forgotten. Her head drooped lower and came to rest on the table, those large eyes closed and I waited, a smile on my face, for her breathing to stop.

* * *

Su's smile beamed up at me as she cheerfully invited me in, ignoring the oddity of me appearing at the door to her room. She wore a bright yellow swimsuit that was well chosen to match her tanned complexion and her wet hair was pulled back in two pigtails, she was taking a swim. I refused her invitation and sat beside the pool as she dived back in, deftly avoiding the lilies and floating reeds scattered throughout. I am always surprised when I enter Su's room (usually without her knowledge), there was always something new and ready to be used for its intended (or unintended purpose), usually on Keitaro. Today there were many devices scattered eclectically about the tropical confines, a few were plugged in, many were not. My eyes were drawn to one of the latter that tilted precariously by the pool and I thought of another, unintended purpose.

Su was easy to distract with questions as she floated lazily on her back, about what each machine was, what her newest _game_ with Keitaro was and how much of the Inn's secret tunnels she and Sara had mapped. Her attention was drawn away for a moment as she kicked a floating log away and I knelt swiftly to plug the device in. Fortunately it made no noise as I sat on it casually, feeling a slight vibration as I crossed my legs and kept talking.

Su kept chattering away. I nodded at something particularly inane that she had said and made excuses to leave. Her face showed false sadness and she made no move to show me out. I stood and as I turned, casually pushed the machine into the water, her jaw locked and her eyes bulged as she went into convulsions, she didn't scream fortunately, but she stared at me the whole time as the thrashing of her legs slowed and she sank down deeper into the water.

* * *

Kitsune was drunk, this was not a surprise but it denied me a certain satisfaction. She motioned vaguely for me to follow her in and zigzagged her way across to the table where she sat enthroned, surrounded by sake bottles. I slid the door shut behind me and picked my way carefully through the detritus of this woman's life, bought carelessly and completely at the landlord's reluctant expense. Her eyes lit upon the large expensive bottle that I carried and narrowed as that thin mouth widened in a smile, she was already plotting how to take it from me. I knelt across from her and smiled nonchalantly in return then unscrewed the bottle cap. She nodded and smiled even more widely then made some comment about drinking being a serious business, I poured us both a cup and we set to it.

It was late when I stood and moved out onto the balcony, the white light of the moon cast pale fingers that reached into the room. The town lights glittered as I pretended to watch them and there was rustling behind me. Kitsune stepped up beside me and leant upon the railing to ease her swaying step. She still smiled, a little more uncertainly now, she must have been wondering why I didn't, unlike her, show the effects of our drinking. She looked back over the town and sighed heavily as I stepped back inside to retrieve the large, now almost empty, sake bottle.

I doubt she felt it but the shock vibrated up my arm as the bottle connected solidly with the back of her head and she slumped forward, almost tipping over the railing. With a little help she went over and I heard the solid crack as her head bounced off the paving stones below. The last of the sake tasted sweet as the moon rose to enfold me with her long, thin arms.

* * *

The sun was low in the sky as I climbed the stairs to where Motoko practiced, I felt no ill effects from the night before, rather I felt loose limbed and elated. She stood in the centre of the space, repeatedly striking downwards, grunting occasionally to indicate effort. She was talented to be sure, but not talented enough. She jumped when I placed my hand on her shoulder and swung around with her bokken held ready, eyes wide in surprise, but my own lack of reaction calmed her somewhat. Motoko stood stoic and tall, with delicate hands belying the capacity for destruction held within, destruction one manager had felt visited upon his body too many times.

She greeted me politely, we had never been particularly close, and invited me to spar with her, an invitation I accepted with equal politeness and, with a mutual bow, we began. Her bokken gave her greater reach, but I had the advantage of speed, we chased each other across Hinata Sou, up walls, across tiled roofs and danced across the surface of the springs. We were almost playing in a way, whenever a strike came too close to connecting it swung away again, deliberately missing, we were simply greeting the day with our own very physical exuberance.

We slowed where we had started and exchanged a flurry of blows. My left fist swung out to whistle by her midnight hair as she ducked under it and pretended to run me through, my knee came up and shattered her nose. Motoko reeled back, blood streaming down her face, eyes wide and brow arched with shock and pain. I stepped in and a jab to the throat collapsed her windpipe, she coughed, spraying blood and froth over my back as I held her and lowered her slowly to the ground. Motoko gasped for breath as she lay there, her lovely hair fanning out around her face, her Gi and Hakama stained red as her bound chest slowed and her eye lids fluttered, struggling to keep me in sight as I stood over her. It took much longer than I had expected for her struggling to stop, the sun was much higher and I had to hurry.

* * *

I passed Sara in the hallway, she pestered me, wanting to know what I had hidden behind my back. It was her mask and it suited her better over a crushed and mangled face.

* * *

Mutsumi's brown eyes lit up as she ushered me inside her apartment and she asked me for news of Keitaro. She was flustered and dashed about her small, mostly empty apartment looking for tea to offer me and biscuits to eat, I finally convinced her to sit down and I fixed what she had offered. She gushed, almost starry eyed as she regaled me with her adventures since we had last met, how she had almost stepped in front of a train but kei-kun had pulled her back safely, how she had fallen down the stairs but _kei-kun_ had fallen down first to break her fall and how she had dropped her watermelons in the river, dived in after them and had been rescued by **kei-kun**.

I changed the subject to her new apartment, she agreed with me that it was very nice but mentioned that sometimes she found it hard to get up the exterior stairs, usually just after she had been to the fruit market. Her eyes began to glaze again and I knew what her next subject would be, apparently _Kei-kun_ had been over to visit her as well and she had been in the shower, unable to answer the door. Mutsumi ara-ed, hand over mouth, and I knew that there was more to it than just that. She rose, muttered something about 'needing ...-melons', obviously wanting to leave, so I stood and we both went out onto the narrow walkway outside.

I had to remind her to lock the door, she looked very pale. We walked over to the long stairway where she paused with her left hand on the rail, swaying. I could have caught her, but I didn't and instead watched her tip gracefully forward, her head connecting with the second stair and she rolled slowly downwards, zigzagging back and forth, making no sound save for the initial thump. Finally, she lay unmoving at the bottom of the stairs, eyes open, beautiful brown hair tangled about her head, neck bent at an unnatural angle. Her still face seemed to wonder where her **kei-kun** was.

* * *

Narusegawa Naru had noticed nothing of course, caught up as she was in her studies. She didn't even notice the lack of her erstwhile study partner, Keitaro, and if I had bothered to ask, would have protested that she was better of without him. It was evening, she had the doors to the veranda open and the sun cast dull, speckled orange light through the trees. There was a chill breeze in the air but the girl didn't notice, and I ignored it. She was studying maths, something that Keitaro had never been very good at, and truth to tell neither was she. He slept below, recovering from a cold caused by a quick unseasonable trip the hot springs caused by the ronin (oh how she would love me to say that to her face) that stood in front of me.

I didn't waste any time with her, she was already distracted and did not expect me to swing for her immediately, this one I wanted to feel, this one I wanted to know. I caught her solidly in the stomach and she folded to the floor, her mouth opened to cry out but I drove my foot into her jaw, shattering it and she moaned quietly. Blood dribbled from her chin and I dragged her out onto the veranda. She knew, I think, why I was there, but she wouldn't give up, not this one. As I turned to slide the door shut behind us, I heard her scrabbling at the floor, trying to get away. I took both her legs in my arms and dragged her down away from Keitaro's room, to an unused wing of the inn.

I tied her to a post and she half crouched there as her eyes shone with tears of pain, but they followed my every movement and I could tell by her lowered brow that she was angry. I sat in a chair that I had prepared and began to talk. I suppose I must have sounded like a villain from a spy movie, explaining why we were both where we were, why I was doing it and all the rest. She was especially shocked when I told her how I had finished with the others, I suppose I took some irrational glee from that, that she could still be hurt beyond the physical. I remember standing to punctuate a point with my fists, after that I couldn't tell how she was reacting to things I said. I was tempted to leave her there in the end, still breathing but face damaged beyond any surgeons skill at repair. I couldn't of course, her injuries would only make her more pitiable and loveable, alive, she couldn't be forgotten. I hefted the chair and her damaged face rose to look at me pleadingly, but it was too late to go back and I brought it down swiftly against that face that _he_ had treasured for so many years.

* * *

I met the last on my way back to the inn proper to clean up, she was like me, a true Urashima, and filled with all the shadowed love that it entails. Dark hair, different in length to my own (but so similar!) blew gently in the rapidly cooling night air as she looked at me, her face characteristically expressionless. "I would have helped you, you know", her strong but still youthful voice rang out across the space between us, she had worked it out then as I had expected, not much escaped her. It didn't matter that she would have helped, her own selfishness made her my target as well, and I always keep my promises.

I said nothing and dashed towards her, arms low at my sides, ready to swing out. She entered a ready stance and we began. I won of course, Hina had especially trained me after all, but it was difficult. The speed of our step picked up tiles and blew them away in vortices of displaced air and the force of our jabs, dodged, cracked walls and flattened trees with each concussion. She almost had me more than once, but I was the faster.

We finished on the roof overlooking the town, breathing heavily we stood there with aching muscles. Clothes torn and bodies bruised we faced each other as the last of the sun's rays dropped below the horizon and the moon came to prominence. I stepped closer and she tried to raise bloodied fists but they could only hang uselessly at her sides. I looked at her face, all pretence at indifference was gone now as she panted, eyes burning in fury, unable to move due to exhaustion yet unwilling to give up. I drew my fist back and paused, had I been the one standing there paralysed, I too would have looked up at my tormentor with tears of rage and frustration in my eyes, we were very much alike she and I, and because of that the outcome too, was guaranteed.

* * *

Keitaro rose slowly into consciousness, first aware only of feeling very warm and safe, then he gradually felt the futon below his body and the blanket tucked around him, then a metallic smell. He opened his eyes to stare at the ceiling and finally noticed the long lithe body of a woman curled beside him, her head hidden by his pillow, she stirred and Keitaro looked quickly away, his nose trickled, reacting to how she was dressed or rather, how she was not. His eyes were caught on a figure by the door, and then another and another, there were eight of them in all. The woman at his side muttered in her sleep and he noticed that none of them had moved, and that he knew who they were. Keitaro would have screamed if he could have but could only manage a hoarse cry, he _knew_ the bloodied corpses that were crouched about his bed, dressed in all too familiar clothes and kneeling as though paying homage to an adored idol or master. He struggled to get out of his futon to escape the scene, but fell sideways when a long fingered hand caught on his sleeping kimono and he found himself very closely face to face with, and entwined in the arms of his Aunt Haruka, who chose that moment to whisper intimately in his ear, "I kept my promise, Keitaro".

* * *

Well I hope it surprised some of you, that's what I was going for really, it's hard to know sometimes how many hints to drop, and how many to leave out.

Let me know what you think in the review panel, good or bad, it all helps


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